Utatsuyama is the quietest and oldest of the temple districts in Kanazawa sporting 100 temples. After today, we have 96 to go. You won’t find any crowds in this neck of the woods. No cutesy cafes or souvenir shops. In Utatsuyama, nestled in the foothills of the Japanese Alps, is Shinjoji Temple. A bit of…
Day: April 26, 2025
It’s not about the museum
Not if you’ve decided to drop by the D.T. Suzuki Museum in Kanazawa. Which we did after hiking up to some wonderful shrines in the hills overlooking the city. When I was in college my Zen reading included Suzuki along with Alan Watts. I discovered after we got here that Suzuki was raised in Kanazawa and there…
Big castle, bigger fire trap
The Kanazawa Gobō, a fortified temple complex backed by tall hills and flanked on two sides by rivers, became, in the sixteenth century, the site of a castle built by the Maeda clan which ruled the Kaga province for fourteen generations. Part of the castle’s domain became the Kenrokuen gardens, so after visiting the gardens…